Tuesday, 29 November 2011

It is a slow day in a little Greek Village
. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough,
everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

On
this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the village, stops
at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he
wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.

The
owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the
hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

The
butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the
pig farmer.

The
pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of
feed and fuel.

The
guy at the Farmers' Co-op takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill
at the taverna.

The
publican slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who
has also been facing hard times and has had to offer him "services"
on credit.

The
hooker then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner
with the €100 note.

The
hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich
traveller will not suspect anything.

At
that moment the traveller comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states
that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.

No
one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole village is
now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism.

Wednesday, 23 November 2011

Two significant points of interest
arose in the course of a property purchase during the last few days - one
topical and the other - well, incredible.

Client buying residential property
with the assistance of a mortgage from High Street Bank represented in this
particular transaction by associated firm because we don’t deal with
residential property.

Father and his son are occupiers of
the property, but not parties to any of the transactions. Bank, very reasonably, requires signed forms
of disclaimer of equitable interests.

There’s some confusion about whether
or not the two occupiers are required to seek independent advice but rather
than debate the point where time is pressing, the two head off to another law
firm where they are told “we can’t help, because you are not our clients”.

An approach to another law firm, another
established conveyancing practice, elicits a “we would like to help but we are
sorry we can’t”.

They take a little more trouble to
explain that they don’t get many requests for this type of exercise now and in
view of the amount of time required to comply with regulatory and other requirements,
have decided as a matter of policy not to do it. It isn’t cost-effective or worthwhile from a
risk perspective.

I find that entirely
understandable. These are the sorts of
reasons why we choose not to deal with any residential conveyancing.

These were two firms that have
established practices in that field, choosing not to undertake the particular
task for similar reasons. This is for
privately paying clients who, within reason, were not in a position to haggle -
they just wanted the job done.

Trite point but this doesn’t augur
well for the survival of poorly paid legal activities in various guises.

Not much to say about the bank in all
that? Well, don’t despair because the
bank ultimately stole the show.
How? Breathtakingly!

My associate did all the necessary
and submitted the report on title to the bank and then made arrangements for
completion with the seller’s London lawyers, subject to arrival of funds.

Whilst waiting for the mortgage
monies to arrive, he then took a call from the purchasing client to report that
she had the mortgage proceeds of more than £¼m in her personal bank account, courtesy of the
lending bank.

The bank’s explanation? That’s the procedure - the monies go to the
customer who then passes them on to the solicitor.

The solicitor of course then
completes the transaction, obtains the documents of title and is able to
complete the bank’s security which protects its investment...

We only act for the good guys, of
course, but in other circumstances that bank might have been lucky that the
telephone call didn’t come from a luxury hotel or cruise ship in the
Caribbean.

It’s good to see that things have
tightened up during the last three years.

Tuesday, 15 November 2011

400 people set to lose their jobs as Aviva announces closure of its offices in Bristol, according to BBC News West this evening.

I suppose at some stage they'll attribute this to "the rising cost of claims" and blame accident victims' solicitors above all others?

We can be sure it won't be anything to do with shareholders' returns, executives' remuneration, the end of cheap off-shore labour, or the loss of referral fee income streams.

The announcement reportedly comes "at the conclusion of a joint-venture with RBS". Another role model if ever there was. I do hope they're still managing to pay their former CEO's pension of £938 per day.

And they wonder (they say) what all those people were whining about outside St Pauls Cathedral.